<p>Sticks, stones, cows, sheep? Like mafool, I carefully orchestrated DS’ early years without guns or war toys. At age 2 1/2, he and I went to our usual local park - swings, climbing structures, slides, grass, trees… Oh, and slightly older boys on all said equipment. I have to tell you, it apparently doesn’t take long for them to acculturate (is that a word?) adoring younger tots.</p>
<p>We got home. Darling DS picked up a banana, held it like a pistol, pointed and enunciated “kew, kew.” </p>
<p>So, you can apparently add bananas to the WW IV munitions list.</p>
<p>This might require its own separate thread, but I was inspired by this one to ask: What have your kids banned you from?</p>
<p>Mine have banned:</p>
<p>Parental use of certain terms: eg: an adult referring to “bling bling” is verboten</p>
<p>Parental dancing of any kind within view of kids or their friends: eg: if store or elevator music is one of my old favorites like Supremes I must not make any rhythmic gestures of ANY kind that would suggest I was responding to the music of my generation</p>
<p>Tonight at dinner: We sang “money makes the world go round” (as DS2 was reviewing for a test on foreign policy tomorrow). Two of the three males emitted noxious fumes. </p>
<p>What my kids have banned me from doing:<br>
singing anything that’s been released in their lifetimes
shaking my groove thing
using current slang (pwned, I lost, noob, etc.)
using current hand gestures/body language</p>
<p>They will deign to be seen with me when I come to shuttle them and their friends around. They still hug me, sometimes even in public. DS2’s friends all want to come to our house because I don’t care if they stay up all night playing poker and Risk (though the incident with the apple juice container was more than a little disturbing, esp. when I served said juice at breakfast the next morning…).</p>
<p>CountingDown-If we are talking boys here, I believe I can imagine was happened to the apple juice; was there a bit of added liquid to it? Just a little trick the boys tried abck in my days at camp :-)</p>
<p>Funny thread! We don’t allow the newspaper at the dinner table, but breakfast is generally ok, esp. when it’s just my son and me and what would we talk about if not for the editorial page?</p>
<p>All active games are to be played outside (except for nerf ball in the basement.) I imagine my kids learned a few new sports in the dorm. Like “hall ball” and how to booby-trap your friend’s room.</p>
<p>I love to dance at parties of my peers but realize I must look pretty lame to my kids, so I try to restrain myself in other public situations. Tho occasionally when in the car & “my” music is on, my kids will warn “Mom, you’re headbanging again.” :D</p>
<p>LOL about invented war toys.
My son took his non-violent Duplo blocks and made a machine gun out of them. He also made a gun out of Brio train tracks. There’s no stopping that urge, I’m afraid!</p>
<p>p.s. while he loves paintball, he did not grow up to be a homicidal maniac!</p>
<p>Countingdown, you made me laugh out loud! Well put! I am also banned from dancing, but use it effectively as a threat. It’s hard to know when it’s ok to speak their slang because sometimes it gets an appalled look and sometimes it gets an “oh, you’re so cute, mom.” (more often the look, though) Funny how people graduate through the stages of embarrassment. In the early and midteens, kids are humiliated by our dancing and singing. By the early 20’s, they are joining in to humiliate their younger siblings!</p>
<p>Already mentioned that I’m banned from:
-singing along with the radio
-humming along with the radio</p>
<p>Add:
-using smiley faces in IM’s; apparently a huge no-no in DS’ world</p>
<p>I’m sure I’d be banned from shaking my booty in his presence, but I instinctively knew not to do that (family weddings excepted, although I’m sure he averts his eyes :p).</p>
<p>Yes, the apple juice was “edited” in the way most of you can imagine it would be when there are 12 thirteen year old boys afoot. Someone put the jug onthe kitchen counter, and noone thought anything of it until DS2 took a big manly chug and sprayed it across the table. Then the kids asked me, “Did you put the apple juice container that was …”</p>
<p>That took place almost two years ago and the story still makes the rounds among his friends.</p>
<p>RE: the music – the ironic part is that my kids LIKE my music! I’m just not allowed to sing along in their presence…</p>
<p>Wonder Bread is a popular source of WWIV weaponry, too. Folds/cuts into good shapes, doesn’t get moldy, forms great bullets (especially when slightly chewed), sticks to ceilings, furniture, etc.</p>
<p>My son hates it when I tell him I can speak to unborn babies. I have predicted, while they were in utero, the sex, hair color, and personalities of my niece and nephews, of my own babies, and of my friends’s children. I also have occasionally demonstrated psychic powers at dinner parties. He hates that.</p>